Today’s dud coin report

I looked through my change purse this morning for 80 pence for the Grauniad. I spied a pound coin that looked somewhat odd, and a closer look told me that it was counterfeit. News reports of a rise in the number of counterfeit pound coins have appeared in the local news lately, but I’ve never actually seen one that I could identify as fake.

I tried to take pictures, but I’m not sufficiently skilled to do so. The colour isn’t quite right: it’s a bit shinier than a regular pound coin (which has the same metallic colour as a US nickle). If you hold the coin between thumb and forefinger so that the Queen’s head on the reverse is vertical, turning the coin to show the observe reveals that the obverse is not vertical but leaning over to the right. The milling on the edge of the coin is only evident in the centre of the edge; the top and bottom of the edge are smooth.

Apparently about 1 in 10 of the coins in circulation is fake. I feel cheated, but, of course, I can’t pass the coin along and I won’t get any money back. I believe I got it in a supermarket, but am not sure.

There was a case in the 1930’s where US one-dollar bills were appearing in small numbers in circulation. No one could figure out why the person wasn’t counterfeiting $20 bills, as you could make 20 times the money from one of those. Finally, when the counterfeiter was discovered, he turned out to be a self-effacing person who just wanted a little money for things like newspapers, and groceries–he wasn’t out to make a large profit from the crime. The one-pound coins go for

4 Responses to “Today’s dud coin report”

  1. keith_london says:

    Would it be wrong to “accidentally” drop the said coin onto a pavement by a tramp? He or she could pick it up and it would be up to them to spend it or not. Seems a waste, because it is

  2. chrishansenhome says:

    Apparently the experts just spend them as few cashiers take the time to examine every pound coin they get in the till. I would not want to expose a tramp to the possibility of being done for passing counterfeit coinage, either. If it becomes too much of a bother I will complain to Simon Hughes about it and see whether Parliament can do anything about it. Even the banks rarely extract these coins from the money supply and turn them in, as they are legally required to do.

  3. trawnapanda says:

    there was something on the Beeb on counterfeit pound coins a little while ago, too. apparently the lettering in the edge of the coin is something to look at – especially the + at the beginning/end of the phrase, it’s quite difficult to fake.

    I must say that I question your assertion that a one pound coin is the same colour as a US nickel. A nickel coin is cupronickel in composition and is grey, similar colour to 5/10/20p coins. A pound coin has a beigey-yellowish cast to it, a distinctly different colour. Course if it WAS the same colour as a US nickel, I can see why you’d pick it out as fake.

    Wikipedia has a picture of a fake and genuine one pound coin, edge on – that colour is noticeably yellower than 5-10-20-50p coins, I would say.

  4. chrishansenhome says:

    Well, on reflection, I suppose you’re right. I probably said it not because I don’t know what the colour of a pound coin is but because I’ve forgotten what the true colour of a nickle is.

    And now I’ve discovered that the spelling “nickle”, which was how I learned to spell the name of the 5 cent coin when I was but a sprat, has fallen into disuse in favour of “nickel”. O tempora, o mores!